The Way of the World
by Anastasia The Goddess of Drama
Summary: Boy wins Summer Olympics for his country, twin sister hopes that it will end war. Yet war continues, bombs are dropped and people are shot. Nothing changes. Boy's head at gunpoint, a family fleeing the country. A little sister watches. The nightmare of that eventful day haunts the twin. In America, they wonder if it will all be the same or will they be fighting a different battle,


Her fingers curled against the cold metal as she rose slightly from her seat as she became enraptured by the scene in front of her. The pounding of her heart drowned the loud screaming and outside noise, her green eyes solemnly focused on one person. This was it, the thing that they dreamt of since they were kids, the thing that Pietro trained for since the moment they stumbled into The Sokovia Training Center, cold, tired, and hungry and they had been found by gold medal-winning archer Clint Barton.

Wanda rose even further up from her seat, her eyes never leaving Pietro's figure as he finally took the lead from Steve Rogers. He turned his head slightly to left and say a few words that couldn't be heard from where she was standing, the blond man let out a laugh as he pushed himself to catch up with Pietro. The attempt went in vain as Pietro picked up his speed and left all the participants behind. Pietro was alone with Steve, Robert Frank and Joss Shappe following after.

 _"It's a World Record! 1:30:06, Pietro Maximoff from Sokovia!"_

Sound instantly filled Wanda's ears as she stared on in shock, not fully registering what she heard. Her hand reached out to her left and she grabbed her sister's bicep, she gave it a strong squeeze as she turned to stare into green eyes. A slow smile emerged on her face as she reached to grab Lorna's other bicep and shook her.

"He won! _He did it!_ "

Under other circumstances, Lorna would have removed Wanda's hands from her and threaten to cut those hands, if she ever did it again but this times she grabs Wanda in return and they both jump up and down. Wanda looked down at the field to see Clint and his wife, Laura, heading towards Pietro as he was being congratulated by his fellow competitors. One look at her sister and Lorna and her headed towards the entryway to the field.

Once security was able to confirm that the two were, in fact, Pietro's sisters, the two ran towards their family. Pietro turned to them as if sensing them and opened his arms wide for them to run into. He pulled them into a tight hug and kissed them both on their heads. Lorna pushed him away with a mock look of anger that caused the twins to laugh.

"We're on international TV!" Lorna said, punching his arm.

"Sorry, sorry," He murmured.

"Pietro, if we could have a minute of your time?" A reporter said.

"Yes?" He asked.

He leaned forward slightly to talk better into the microphone, his face serious, a rare thing.

"Towards the end of the run, you said something to Steve," The reporter started. "What was it?"

A smirk broke out onto Pietro's face. "I told him 'on your left.'"

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know," Pietro chuckled. "But I noticed that this is what Steve says this to his running mate, Sam Wilson. Why he says that to him, I do not know."

"So the comment was a reference to that?"

Pietro nodded. "Yes, I got Steve to get a laugh at it."

"Thank you for your time, Pietro," The reporter said.

Pietro gave a nod and the reporter and camera left them alone. Clint patted Pietro on the back and led the three children off of the track.

"Cooper and Lila are probably so excited right now!" Laura exclaimed.

"They should be," Lorna said. "Pietro just beat Captain America. That man has won the 800 meter three times in a roll!"

"He only won those medals because I was still training," Pietro said.

Wanda tsked and gently hit him upside his head. "Don't get cocky."

Pietro rubbed his head and rolled his eyes but said nothing else on the matter. Wanda knew that he was too caught up with the fact that he won a medal for their home country, for Sokovia, which definitely needed this with its war-stricken streets. She had watched her twin brother train for this day with every moment of his life. Pietro was always up before the sun, running to the center and staying there until Laura had sent either Wanda or Lorna or Clint to go get him so that he could eat, sleep, and go to school. He pushed himself to the limit, often times needing ice for his legs or a day of rest, and had spent many days studying the men he would go up against. He was the youngest competitor in the 800-meter race and less experience in races than he liked to admit but if Wanda hadn't known that than she would have thought that Pietro had been racing since the day he was born.

Just before they could leave, Steve stopped them by the entrance. For a man in his mid-30s, he still looked incredibly handsome, not that Wanda thought that all men in their mid-30s couldn't be handsome. . . Steve was just particularly even more handsome than the rest. His All-American smile was absolutely heartbreaking and the tousle of his hair and the growth of a beard made him sexy, not to mention those baby blue eyes. . .

Wanda flushed and looked away from the man. She had thought that she had gotten over her crush for the runner but seeing him up close and personally, showed that she hadn't. If Pietro or Lorna (god forbid both) figured out that she still had a crush on him, she knew that she would never hear the end of it. The brunette took several steps back from Steve and Pietro and opted to stand beside Laura as the two had their exchange of words.

"You did good kid," Steve said.

The older man, then, offered his hand and which Pietro accepted with a firm shake.

"Thanks, you too, Old Man," Pietro answered.

Steve laughed at this and Pietro's smirk turned into a big smile. They both released the other hand and with that, the Maximoffs-Bartons left.

* * *

Wanda laid in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, her heart caught in her throat as she waited for the worse. The apartment shook and groaned as bombs were being dropped all around them, the sound was awful and the people's screams were even worse. She hated that the war resumed the moment people left with the Olympics, breaking the illusion of peace and safety. The week had felt too surreal, too much of a dream and Wanda was foolish to think that a stupid medal would stop it all.

She sighed and pulled herself out of bed, knowing that there was no use in sleeping alone. Wanda walked towards Pietro's room and carefully pushed open the door so that she didn't wake anybody. She knew without looking that laying in bed with Pietro was Lorna, Lila, and Cooper, no doubt Lorna during the course of the night had pulled the Barton's kids close to her chest and Pietro had rolled himself over so that the younger kids could be sandwiched in between them. She took her place behind Pietro and threw an arm over them to create a sense of safety that had been destroyed overnight.

* * *

It was moments like this where Wanda forgot the existence of the world. Where she let the music lead her to a calmer place, a place where she didn't have to constantly worry about another bomb taking away her family or the riots and protests that got too dangerous or that Clint and Laura were seriously contemplating leaving the country. Everything that she fretted over at constantly second of an hour, disappeared the moment she pulled her hair into a bun and slipped on her ballerina flats and leotard.

Ballet and Ice-Skating were in her element like running was for Pietro.

She felt the music in her bones, flowing from her feet to her fingertips, taking a hold of her and calming her nerves. Her eyes fluttered closed and her mind grew blank, and she slowly slipped into her own little world.

* * *

They pack in the middle of the night after a too close call with Pietro and the police. Wanda gripped the top of her dresser tightly as she was transported to a couple of hours earlier.

 _"Pietro, you ass, you promise me that you would look at my latest invention!" Lorna said, shoving him._

 _The older boy opened his mouth to deny it but Wanda beat him to it by shaking her head._

 _"She's right, Pietro, you promised," Wanda said._

 _She stood in between them as they walked to their apartment. Her dark red shawl was draped around her arms, it dragged lightly against the ground. The sun hit their backs and Wanda was glad that she went with her black shorts and a tank top. Lorna was on her left, her lime green shawl on her shoulders and her t-shirt a darker green and she wore black capris. In her hands was styrofoam cup filled with green apple flavored ice and a spoon that used to break the ice even more so that she could eat it._

 _Lorna's head was lowered towards the cup as she was solemnly focused on breaking that ice. . ._

 _A policeman that were patrolling the streets of Sokovia wasn't paying attention either and the man ( he had dark red hair, short and a stubble of a beard, and his eyes. . . his eyes were dark brown) ran into Lorna. The girl's hand jerked away as the cup flew out of her hand and ended up hitting the police in the chest. Lorna looked up and opened her mouth to sass the person before she quickly realized that it was a policeman and she shut it immediately. She went paled as she stared at the strained uniform._

 _"You idiotic girl," The man sneered. "Watch where you're going."_

 _He, then, pushed Lorna hard enough that she stumbled and fell to the ground. Wanda immediately rushed to her little sister's side as Pietro stepped up towards the officer._

 _He was always too protective for his own good._

 _Wanda felt her heart drop as she turned her head up and was met with the image of Pietro having a gun pointed at his head. She gripped Lorna's arm tight as Pietro stood his ground._

 _"Pietro, apologize," Wanda whispered._

 _Her voice shook ever so slightly, had gone hoarse at the sight before her._

 _"I would listen to her if I was you," The man said._

 _Pietro clenched his jaw._

 _"Pietro, please," Wanda said desperately._

 _The man's finger laid on the trigger and all he had to do was pull it. Her heart pounded loudly as she mentally plead her twin to step down and it let go._

 _"Pietro, please, I'm fine," Lorna said._

 _Wanda felt Lorna's hand on her knee, felt her nails dig into her skin, probably hoping and praying that Pietro would just back down._

 _"I'm sorry, officer," Pietro said slowly and loudly for the man to hear._

 _The world became still as they waited for the officer's next move. Wanda almost let out a loud sound of relief as he slowly lowered his gun and placed it back in his holster. A nasty smile grew on his face as he_ pat _Pietro's face, hard. The hatred in Pietro's eyes as he glared hard at the officer._

 _"Good boy," The man said._

 _He turned to walk away before he changed his mind halfway and turned to spit at Pietro. The eldest Maximoff tighten his hand into a fist, to calm himself as the officer walked out of sight. Wanda's vision suddenly went blurry and she felt the wetness on her cheeks to know that she was crying. Lorna's grip on her knee lessened as she moved that hand to wipe away her older sister's tears._

 _"Come on," Pietro said, his voice tight and filled with restrained anger. "Let's go home."_

"Wanda."

The brunette blinked once and turned towards the door to see Clint standing on the other side. His face spoke sincere concern as his eyes searched her face. Wanda forced a smile as she slowly let go of the dresser, her fingers hurting from gripping it for too long.

"Are you packed?"

Wanda looked around the room, her thoughts mixed with relief and remorse. Relief that they were finally leaving this country before war took away her family again and remorse because this has been her home for 19 years. Though after today, after seeing her twin, her other half, moments away from getting shot in the head, her remorse wasn't as strong as it would've been without that nightmarish image in her head.

She nodded once and before she looked around her room again. She remembered the first time she came into this room, she had been twelve.

Clint had turned on the lights of the room and Wanda blinked at the sight of it. The room wasn't much but for a twelve-year-old who hasn't seen the inside of house since she was ten years old, it was everything. She turned to Clint, in disbelief, unsure what she was supposed to do. He smiled down at her and got on his knee.

"This is yours."

"Really?"

He nodded and Wanda couldn't help the smile that emerged on her face.

It was fitting that Clint would be the one to take her out of the room. Or she thought so as she went to her bed and grabbed her two walked toward him and placed her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her out.

"Where will we go?" Wanda wasn't surprised that her voice was hoarse.

"Before Laura and I moved here, we lived in America. I know somebody that will able to get us a house to live in." Clint told her.

Wanda nodded and bit her lower lip.

"Dad?"

Clint paused and looked down at Wanda. Whatever was on the mind of the nineteen-year-old, it was serious since she rarely called him, Dad. Out of the three Maximoffs, only Lorna called Clint and Laura, Mom and Dad, they were the only parents that she remembered.

He hummed and squeezed her shoulder, quietly urging her to continue.

"I don't think I can handle seeing Pietro in that situation again. . . will this happen in America?"

Clint took a deep breath and kissed the top of her head.

"I can't promise that this won't happen again, not in the crazy world that we live in, but I'm sorry that you had to witness it."

Wanda nodded once and felt the air in throat get caught and an ugly sob escaped her. Clint pulled her into a tight hug that left Wanda's arms at her side and her head buried deep into his chest. They stayed like that for a moment or so until Wanda collected herself, wiping away her tears with her arm.

"Is everybody else in the car already?" She asked.

Clint nodded. "Yeah, ready to go?"

Wanda looked around their apartment, one final time and nodded. She, then, followed Clint outside and before getting into the car, she whispered her goodbyes to her home country.


End file.
